Environmental sculpture

Environmental sculpture, 20th-century art form intended to involve or encompass the spectators rather than merely to face them; the form developed as part of a larger artistic current that sought to break down the historical dichotomy between life and art. The environmental sculptor can utilize virtually any medium, from mud and stone to light and sound.

The works of the American sculptor George Segal are among the best-known self-contained sculptural environments; his characteristic white plaster figures situated in mundane, authentically detailed settings evoke feelings of hermetic alienation and suspension in time. By contrast, the eerily realistic figures of Duane Hanson, an American influenced by Segal, are usually displayed in such a way as to partake of, contribute to, and indeed often disturb the given exhibition environment. Other notable sculptors of indoor environmental works include the American artist Edward Kienholz, whose densely detailed, emotionally charged works often incorporate elements of the surreal, and Lucas Samaras and Robert Irwin, also Americans, both of whom have employed transparent and reflective materials to create complex and challenging optical effects in gallery and museum spaces.

The larger context of the natural and urban outdoors has preoccupied another group of environmental artists. The controversial “earthworks” of Robert Smithson and others frequently have entailed large-scale alterations of the Earth’s surface; in one notable example, Smithson used earth-moving equipment to extend a rock and dirt spiral, 1,500 feet (460 m) long, into Great Salt Lake in Utah (Spiral Jetty; 1970). The Bulgarian-born artist Christo has involved large numbers of people in the planning and construction of such mammoth alfresco art projects as Valley Curtain (1972; Rifle Gap, Colo.). Christo’s numerous “wrapped buildings” have been notable among urban environmental works of the past few decades.